SSN is a digest of the day's soccer/football/futbol articles with a focus on the top European leagues and the United States National Team. Below, you’ll find links to articles and video, as well as additional features and commentary. We locate the top news of the day so you can stay updated with ease.

I remember watching this fixture last season when Arsenal gave Reading an absolute lesson. It was sensational the way they played their football.

With Reading, they lose a couple of games and you worry they are going to sink and then they come up with a result. I think everyone now recognises that Reading is a real tough place to go and I think they will get a point here.

Who will meet New England at MLS Cup 2007? Goal.com USA's Pat Walsh takes a look at an intriguing matchup in Houston between one team known for their offense versus a side that hasn't been scored upon over the last three games.

Mourinho, who prior to his dismissal from Chelsea this season had said that he was more "serene" than ever, seems to have flown into a rage when his 11-year-old daughter told him about playground taunts that another boy had made, comparing her with her father. Isabal Simao, headmistress of St Peter's School, said that Mourinho appeared truly embarrassed and later wrote to the boy and the school to apologise for his behaviour. She said: "From what I know, Pedro told Matilde 'Your father is very good and you are ugly'.

The Special One poses with son Zuca and daughter Matilde. Matilde is the one who Pedro thinks is ugly...

Thanks to the efforts of Lanús and Tigre this season, the so-called big boys of the Argentinian league aren't having it all their own way.

Buenos Aires is renowned for being the city with the most stadia in the world, but a disproportionate amount of these are located within the central area known as capital, the city proper as it were. Beyond the confines of the busy centre, a vast expanse of Buenos Aires known as provincia reaches the delta where all rivers run to, marking the closest point to Uruguay amid small islands and wild vegetation.

Thursday 8th November sees the return of UEFA Cup action, with eight teams set to make their group stage debuts after having Matchday 1 off. Some of the big guns suffered shocks as they took to the pitch on the first day - what will happen this time around?

Nürnberg vs. Everton:David Moyes has appealed to ticketless Everton supporters not to jeopardise the club's European position when they descend on the EasyCredit Stadium here tonight. Fewer than half of Everton's estimated travelling support in Germany have an official ticket for their second Uefa Cup group game, in which victory would maintain a place at the Group A summit, and approximately 1,500 were caught out when home tickets purchased directly from the Bundesliga club were unsurprisingly cancelled on Uefa advice.

You can always count on 'Arry to tell it like it is. I could not agree more with his assessment. I think "plodding" is the most accurate adjective he uses here. But with all the money out there it'll be tough if not impossible for UEFA to go back to a shortened format. -Sanford

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Portsmouth manager Harry Redknapp thinks Europe's top club competition is in danger of losing its way thanks to the league format which, he believes, has made it "boring." The Champions League is "fast replacing the Carling Cup" and the group stages have become "monotonous" and "plodding" in the opinion of Portsmouth manager Harry Redknapp.

Arsenal and Manchester United qualified for the Champions League knockout stages while Inter Milan took a big step towards the last 16 after fighting back from 2-0 down to beat CSKA Moscow 4-2 on Wednesday.

Just how important is momentum?That is the question we will get an answer to on Thursday when the red-hot Chicago Fire face the tepid New England Revolution in the Eastern Conference final (7:30 p.m. ET, ESPN2). Can the Fire, a team that hasn't lost in 10 matches (including the playoffs), be slowed down by a Revs team that didn't win a single game in the month of October before barely knocking off a toothless Red Bulls squad?

Wednesday, November 07, 2007

Even West Ham United are pressing ahead with leaving Upton Park, a stadium that Tottenham supporters will be alarmed to hear they could be temporarily calling home after the club held a meeting with their rivals about a groundshare.

Some even coined a term, “Brazilian superstar disease”, which was allegedly afflicting Ronaldinho as well as his national teammates Adriano, of Inter Milan, who admitted to having a drink problem, and Ronaldo, whose allegedly ballooning waistline provided acres of newsprint in Madrid and Milan. The low point came a few days before Barcelona’s trip to Ibrox, when Ronaldinho was dropped for a league match after returning late from an international qualifier in Rio de Janeiro. According to local reports he missed his flight after staying out until 11am, a feat the 27-year-old achieved by bribing nightclub staff to stay open for him and his friends. Gabriele Marcotti reports.

David Beckham's move last summer to LA Galaxy, where he earns £500,000 a week, has consolidated his position as the world's richest footballer, making him the first to have earned more than £100m from the game. The former England captain is said to have increased his wealth from last year's £87m - a fortune fuelled more by endorsements than by his on-pitch earnings - to £112m.The top 10 players

It's almost comforting to have these two going at it again. It's just like old times. Now that The Special One is gone, Fergie and Wenger can get the animosity flowing again. I can't help but scoff at Sir Alex's comments, though. Anderson, Nani, Kuszczak and Tevez ( all purchased this past summer) aren't exactly England's finest. -Sanford

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

Sanford's Soccer Net Technical AdvisorMathias Kolehmainen took in the Manchester City vs. Sunderland match last night. His report is below. -Sanford

Went to the Manchester City (called just "City" by the fans) gameagainst Sunderland last night. I took a taxi to a pub (The Plough) insome town outside of Chester. There I met D and his buddy, Biddo.

They both showed me their City tattoos. D has two. D and Biddohave been City fans all their lives. These guys are busy consuming asmuch beer as they can before the bus comes. Great quote: "you have toget pissed to watch City". Not wanting to stand out, I had a coupleof pints. Interesting fact: at the game, you are not allowed to bringbeer out to your seat.

The coach arrives (late), we board (10 pounds) and head towardsManchester. This is a rented tour bus and on it are a friendlyassortment of very devoted City fans. They are of all ages, teenagersto retirees, mostly men. These guys go to just about every game allover the country. Recently when City was in the UEFA Cup, Dtraveled to all the games around Europe. I expected non-stop singing,but the bus ride was a fairly sedate affair.

Even though the bus was late, we arrived about 45 minutes before the8pm kick off, so D and Biddo take me to a pub called The Manchesterwhich is across the street from the stadium. This place is run by awell known ex(?) hooligan, who apparently drives a Bentley and is notto be fucked with. The place was absolutely packed with mostly drunklarge English men. Most with bald or shaved heads, some singing veryloudly. Oasis is cranked on the stereo (apparently Oasis are hugecity fans). Several odes to City are played, including a punk versionof Blue Moon (the official City anthem). It was a volatileenvironment, but the strange thing was it wasn't scary or threatening.D said that it sometimes gets a little unpleasant in there. Atsome point a couple of police came in and the energy level went up alittle bit. We left soon after, and as we did we saw that a van fullof police was unloading outside. Not sure if they went in there ornot. We headed to the stadium.

The stadium is a very modern building maybe about five years old. Itis pretty impressive looking all lit up with blue neon. Inside, alongwith food and drink vendors there are betting areas where you can beton the outcome, who will score, or the score at half-time.

The seats were great, probably about 10 rows back from the field about1/2 way between the goal and center field. The great thing about thestadium-- which they got all wrong at the Home Depot Center-- is thatthe first row is literally about six inches off of field level. Soyou are really very close to the field and you can tell. And what afield. Really vibrant green with a light mist rising off of it.

In the stadium you could see many empty seats, but as soon as themusic switched to this sort of eerie Tubular Bells sort of soundtrack,the place quickly filled up. The Who-esqe Premiere League anthem wasplayed and the players came out. The crowd was on their feetapplauding.

City actually didn't play that well, but the did score a great goaland that was all that mattered in the end beating Sunderland 1-0.

And Martin Rogers says: Despite more reports citing more sources than you can shake a red card at insisting he had been fired, Arena was adamant he had left on his own terms. But hey, maybe everyone is wrong. Maybe this is all part of Arena's master plan. If he has somehow fooled everyone, then we will surely see him turn up in some high-profile coaching position over the next few months.

Last Wednesday, attendance at some of the midweek Serie A matches was so low all you could see from television highlights were empty sections. Only 670 fans bothered to buy a ticket for Siena's home match v Catania, which made for a cringeworthy 8,000 crowd once you add in season ticket holders in the small, town-centre ground, while Reggina-Livorno did not sound exotic enough to lure more than 857 souls away from their dinner tables. Juventus-Inter, though, was not one of those reruns, but it quickly gained the status of classic, as one of the best matches, if not the best match, of the season so far. The media anticipation had been so massive for a while that you had the feeling that the round of midweek matches was almost seen as a nuisance because it would obviously require newspapers and TV shows to momentarily focus on them instead of carrying on with the hype.

When I was a kid, Sunday nights were ritually employed for baths and hair-washes, in preparation for the rigours of school the next day. The practice dies hard (well - I try to bathe more than once a week now, honest) but Athletic Bilbao v Revreativo de Huelva, my old mates, was just too hard to resist, especially given that Bill, my Scots friend, had been granted annual permission to fly over and indulge in some live La Liga action. I'd suggested he come over for this one, a game between Spain's two oldest clubs.

Well Chris Hutchings can't really complain. He was given a fair amount of time to prove himself as a top flight manager - a whole 12 EPL games. Moreover, he had a terrible start to the season, only winning 2 out of his first 3 games. And you should be expected to win your home games against minnows like Chelsea. Wigan's chairman, Daven Whelan, always seemed a bit of a loud-mouthed wanker, but in past he had backed his managers. Not any more.Hutchings out as Wigan's patience ends

According to Steve Davis at soccernet at playoff time, the little things really are the big things. So in that spirit, here are 10 things you may have missed during a dandy first round, during which both No. 1 seeds went down:10 things about the first round

David Beckham is reported to be awaiting the appointment of a new club manager after Frank Yallop resigned as coach of Los Angeles Galaxy just six months after the former England captain joined the club.Yallop quits as coach at LA Galaxy

Sunday, November 04, 2007

The highly anticipated top of the table clash may have failed to deliver in the first half, but things certainly picked up in the second. Arsenal probably deserved more than a point against Liverpool last week, but against ManU, a team far better equipped at exploiting space, they were perhaps a touch lucky. ManU, who seem to get stronger by the game, will be kicking themselves.It's difficult to assess Arsenal. As against Pool, Adebayor looked light up front [he is only 23 in fairness], and as Bobbie said on the blog a couple of days ago, Rosicky is a passenger at the moment. Wenger will be looking forward to the return of RVP. Patrick Barclay points out below that Arsenal also look weak in the air. That said, there's a real steal to the Gooners - coming back from behind against Liverpool and ManU in the space of a week is no mean feat. Despite people writing them off at the start of the season they're top of the league, beating the weaker teams, taking points from their rivals, but still have areas where they can improve. Hardly the worst situation in which to be.Performance wise ManU have really turned things round from the beginning of the season. Hargreaves is excellent at protecting their defence, Rooney is on top form, and being able to bring on player like Saha is a real bonus. They have a variety of player which enables them to change style and tactics as needed, and are understandably the bookies favourites to win the league.Arsenal's young pupils pass United's examinationArsenal were stronger at the end but United look to have the greater staying powerDefence's aerial weakness a barrier to Arsenal

What a shocker to see Fergie blame the referee after the match. His complaint about a possible foul on Evra before the Arsenal is a joke - it took place months before the goal. A great manager, but ever the miserable twat.Fergie fumes at referee, home fans - and own players